a bleeding purple utah jazz blog

Bits from Randy Rigby Interview, 4/30

Do you have an update on the coaching search?
You know what? It, we feel it’s still very early. I mean, again, it’s just barely over a week since we made the announcement. But in that time, we’ve had very good dialogue as an organization.

Have spent quite a bit of time, really, as we’ve defined, defining who we are. Establishing kind of some grid and analytics, really, and being able to look at different things of being prepared, to address different options. And so, we feel very good about where we’re at in our process of, really, our coaching search, but it is still in an early stage, of what we’re doing…

We want to be thorough, concise, and really make the right decisions because we’re in a very good place in a very key time with our organization, and we wanna make sure that that coaching decision is in harmony and reflective of what, where we’re about and where we’re going as an organization.

Is there a time frame for the new hire?
You know, I think we’re going to let the process kind of dictate, to a certain degree, as we’ve talked about this, you know, it’s interesting because there may be some occasions that, as we start going, that a candidate might come up, and it might percolate faster and might recar–require us to move along faster.

At the same time, we might feel as we’re starting, in talking to some people, that we’re not comfortable yet in still feeling the direction and getting the advice that we want to get, and we may have to then dig even deeper, and start even opening up those, the search even to a wider degree.

And so, at this point, it’s hard to say. It’s, in a lot of ways, we would like to see it happen before the draft, but in other ways, we’re not going to set a time frame because the time frame isn’t as important as getting the right person. That’s the most important thing. We want to get the right person, that is going to be a very valuable part of how we’re moving forward, to help us really build this championship team.

What kind of questions do you ask candidates?
Well, and, we, you know what, at this point we have not had dialogue with any candidates. And so, right now what we’ve determined to, and telling people, is because, as I said, it’s still early and there’s still a lot of basketball that’s going on.

And so, we wanna make sure that we’re still allowing, potentially, time, for those who may be candidates who are still coaching teams or helping to coach teams, that, we’re respectful of where they’re at in the NBA season.

And so, for that very reason, we’re actually developing our questionnaires that we are gonna make sure that we’re going to be asking those different candidates, of what’s important for us.

Now, I will say this. I think it’s, it should be very apparent one of the questions that we’re looking at is, literally, what their style of developing and philosophy in developing of young players. We’re going to be asking on their defensive philosophy, and what their philosophy would be on defensive toughness.

And by the way, even as much asking the question, we’re doing, and we will have done a lot of analytics that have been able to also, we can be able to measure, and see, and look at, that will tell us, based on teams they’ve been involved in, where they’ve actually, you know, if they’re putting their money where their mouth is.

And that’s very important. You know, you can, we wanna make sure who’s not only talking the talk, but they’ve also walked the walk. So, we’re going to be, you know, not only looking at what is said, but also what their record may also reflect.

As far as draft workouts go, do you have a contingency plan if you don’t have a head coach yet?
We do. You know, we’ve worked arrangements out with both, our two development coaches that we’ve had on staff, with Alex Jensen and Johnnie Bryant, and have asked them to remain on d–in their role as the development coaches, so that they can continue to help us, and that’s ve–been very important.

And we’ve really appreciated two men that I, worked, as very closely and did a wonderful job for coach [Tyrone] Corbin and our staff there. But their, and their job is to really work on the development and the workouts with our players, and, as well as with the draft picks.

And so, and they’re great up and coming coaches that do a very good job and know what needs to be done in doing those workouts. And so, they’ll be assisting us in those workouts.

What do potential coaching candidates want in a potential coaching job?
Well, you know, I think that’s a very good question. And the interesting thing is, I think based on different coaches, they may look, and where they’re at, in their career, they may look at answering that question different ways.

I think, potentially, maybe a younger, more young development coach, who is also, maybe come from being a, an assistant, who is, has a longer perspective of maybe their own coaching career, they may be more open to looking at not only their relationship with the front office, and the goals of the front office, but also of the development of players.

You know, I think we’ve seen very apparently, is, as last year, Doc, for example, Doc Rivers, his approach of, I think, because of where he was at in his life, and his kind of time frame, and his goals and objectives, were maybe different, and that’s why for him, going to the Clippers, in who had already a more developed team that was looking at those last few pieces, and may–it fit better for him to be, you know, making the decision to go with the Clippers.

And I think it’s very important as we have interviews, with those coaching candidates, that we understand exactly what their goal, philosophy, and expectations are, for them and their career, and make sure that they are in harmony with also our goals, and aspirations, and expectations.

We can’t have a conflict there, or we’re just gonna constantly have conflict and I, that’s not gonna create a win-win environment. So, I think it’s very important that we make sure that their aspirations and ours are in harmony. (1280)